Born on this day – A. B. Guthrie Jr.:

A. B. Guthrie Jr.

Writer

Historian

January 13, 1901 – April 26, 1991

Credits:

Wild Pitch (1973); The Genuine Article (1977); No Second Wind (1980); Playing Catch-Up (1985); Murder in the Cotswolds (1989); The Big Sky (1947); The Way West (1949); Fair Land, Fair Land (1982); Murders at Moon Dance (1943); Twenty-Six Years After (1949); Kentucky (1951); These Thousand Hills (1956); The West Is Our Great Adventure of the Spirit (1959); Arfive (1970); Once Upon a Pond (1973); The Last Valley (1975); Four Miles From Ear Mountain (1987); The Big It and Other Stories (1972); The Blue Hen's Chick (1965); Big Sky, Fair Land (1974); Images from the Great West (1990); A Field Guide to Writing Fiction (1991).

Recommended reading – The Cowboys (1971):

The Cowboys

By William Dale Jennings.

Published by Bantam.

First published 1971.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0552089796

ISBN-13: 978-0552089791

Description:

The time is 1877, the place the wild Wyoming-Montana territory. Will Anderson, a flinty old rancher, has a huge herd of cattle ripe for market when his regular hands, inflamed by gold fever, desert him. In desperation, he hires the only "men" available for the perilous 400 mile drive – a pack of scraggly schoolboys. Through skill and harsh discipline, Wil Anderson whips them from greenhorns into seasoned cowhands. But before the long drive is over, the boys discover that the price they must pay for manhood is a terrible one- murder and revenge! the stunning, heartbreaking climax of this extraordinary story will surprise you - and perhaps even sock you.

Stephen King, on writing:

Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about.

It is this genuine caring,

not your games with language,

which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.

- Stephen King.

James Ellroy, on writing:

Cats gotta scratch.

Dogs gotta bite.

I gotta write.

- James Ellroy.

The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe:

The Sleeper

by Edgar Allan Poe
 
At midnight, in the month of June,
I stand beneath the mystic moon.
An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,
Exhales from out her golden rim,
And softly dripping, drop by drop,
 
Upon the quiet mountain top,
Steals drowsily and musically
Into the universal valley.
The rosemary nods upon the grave;
The lily lolls upon the wave;
 
Wrapping the fog about its breast,
The ruin moulders into rest;
Looking like Lethe, see! the lake
A conscious slumber seems to take,
And would not, for the world, awake.
 
All Beauty sleeps! – and lo! where lies
Irene, with her Destinies!
Oh, lady bright! can it be right –
This window open to the night?
The wanton airs, from the tree-top,
 
Laughingly through the lattice drop –
The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,
Flit through thy chamber in and out,
And wave the curtain canopy
So fitfully – so fearfully –
 
Above the closed and fringéd lid
’Neath which thy slumb’ring soul lies hid,
That, o’er the floor and down the wall,
Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!
Oh, lady dear, hast thou no fear?
 
Why and what art thou dreaming here?
Sure thou art come o’er far-off seas,
A wonder to these garden trees!
Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress!
Strange, above all, thy length of tress,
 
And this all solemn silentness!
The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,
Which is enduring, so be deep!
Heaven have her in its sacred keep!
This chamber changed for one more holy,
 
This bed for one more melancholy,
I pray to God that she may lie
Forever with unopened eye,
While the pale sheeted ghosts go by!
My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,
 
As it is lasting, so be deep!
Soft may the worms about her creep!
Far in the forest, dim and old,
For her may some tall vault unfold –
Some vault that oft hath flung its black
 
And wingéd pannels fluttering back,
Triumphant, o’er the crested palls
Of her grand family funerals –
Some sepulchre, remote, alone,
Against whose portals she hath thrown,
 
In childhood, many an idle stone –
Some tomb from out whose sounding door
She ne’er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within.

Recommended reading:

The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1966)

Video by Jack Kost – 2025.

Photograph: Moon Over Trees (2024), by Jack Kost.

Wind Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay.

On this day in movie history - The Last Stand (2013):

The Last Stand

directed by Kim Jee-woon,

written by Andrew Knauer,

was released in the United States on January 12, 2013.
Music by Mowg.

Cast:

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arron Shiver, Titos Menchaca, Richard Dillard, Doug Jackson, Mathew Greer, Peter Stormare, Chris Browning, Christiana Leucas, Johnny Knoxville, Zach Gilford, Luis Guzmán, Rio Alexander, James Burnett, David Midthunder, Tait Fletcher, Mark Sivertsen, Jaimie Alexander, Rodrigo Santoro, Forest Whitaker, Genesis Rodriguez, Daniel Henney, Eduardo Noriega, Diana R. Lupo, David Kilde, David House, Billy Blair, Kent Kirkpatrick, Mario Moreno, John Patrick Amedori, Kristen DeVore Rakes, Don Ambabo, Ross Kelly, Ryan Jason Cook, Elias Gallegos, Kevin Wiggins, Lois Geary, Jermaine Washington, Terry Dale Parks, Allan Padelford, Tim Booth, Cliff Fleming, Eddie J. Fernandez, Scott Flick, Julia Gallegos, Angela Joseph, Brandy Joseph, Kearon Lehman, Gregory Leiker, Alexandria Morrow, Steve Most, Francisco Peramos, Daniel Pimentel, Frank Powers, Dieter Rauter, Jessica Record, Ned Record, Kelly Ruble, Jeff Sanders, Harry Dean Stanton, Julian Wondolowski.

On this day in movie history - Sexy Beast (2000):

Sexy Beast

directed by Jonathan Glazer,

written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto,

was released in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2001.

Music by Roque Baños.

Cast:

Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, James Fox, Cavan Kendall, Julianne White, Álvaro Monje, Robert Atiko, Nieves del Amo Oruet, Enrique Alemán Fabrega, Gérard Barray, José Maria Cano Ramos, Desirée Erasmus, Santiago Frias Munoz, José Hernández, Ana Maldonado Herreria, Andy Lucas, José Lirola Ramos, José López Carrillo, Antonio Fco. Márquez Quesada, Juan Manuel Martníez Cobos, Dionisio Mesa, Eddie O'Connell, Terence Plummer, Manuel Sánchez Berlanga, Frank Scinto, Darkie Smith, Rocky Taylor, Chris Webb, Pedro Zamora Hernández, Tina Simmons.